Shelley Podolny’s March 12 New York Times column, “The Digital Pileup,” started me thinking. “Because electronic information seems invisible, we underestimate the resources it takes to keep it all alive.” Podolny reports global data usage of 1.2 zettabytes (a lot of gigabytes). For the US alone, 3% of the national power supply supports “server farms,” the giant data centers with aisles and aisles of servers.
Out From Under Too Much Data
Posted March 13th, 2011 by Steve Backman in
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Restoring health to Microsoft Access databases
Posted February 11th, 2010 by Steve Backman
Stuck on persistent instability or corrupted data in an old Access database? While Database Designs has the expertise to address most common issues, whether we created your database or not, we whole-heartedly recommend Garry Robinson's vb123.com site. Based in Australia, Garry has long been one of the best writers and advisors to other consultants on effective use of Access. His site has tips as well as an on-line form for submitting a problem database for quick and cost-effective repair.
Here are some great tips (though the page could use some updating!)
Comparing Desktop Databases
Posted January 17th, 2010 by Steve BackmanThe folks at Alpha 5 have a useful spreadsheet format comparison of Microsoft Access, the various Filemaker versions, and Alpha 5. Useful for the comparisons and also just to see the specs and limits for your favorite database. Check it out here: http://www.comparealphafive.com/
And here is their blog site for more details: http://blog.alphasoftware.com/search/label/Comparison%20grid
Microsoft Access database corruption
Posted May 10th, 2009 by Steve BackmanFrom time to time, Microsoft Access databases may start to report errors. Forms won't open, Access will warn that the file is not a recognizable database. ("Unrecognized database format mymissioncriticaldatabase.mdb")
These and other scary messages can take the breath away, and depending on the severity, ruin an hour, a day or a week. Here are steps we take in escalating order:
